A year in the life of Western Australia's social enterprises

Social enterprises continue to make significant impacts to the lives of many Australians. A recent study has shown there are an estimated 20,000 social enterprises operating in Australia, present in every industry (Barraket, Mason and Blain 2016). Although they are a growing presence in our communities, we still lack important knowledge about how social enterprises operate.

Social enterprises aim to produce defined social impacts through sustainable business models. If we can better understand their business and reporting needs, then support for their needs can be tailored to help them achieve greater social impacts.

Previous reports in the Social Impact Series have gone some way to documenting the business and reporting needs of social enterprises in Western Australia. Using interview and organisational data collected from social enterprise case studies, these reports describe social enterprises’ resourcing practices (Barraket, Barth and Mason 2015) and uncover organisational tensions, challenges and opportunities that influence their resilience (Mason, Barraket, Simnett and Lee 2016).